When the 101st
Airborne Division returned to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, from Viet Nam inFebruary 1972,
about all that returned were the unit colors, and a command group with a fewstaff
officers and senior NCOs. Almost all soldiers, SSG and below, were immediatelydischarged
when they arrived at Oakland, California, or Seattle, Washington. The 101st Airborne,
then calledthe
101st Airborne Division (Airmobile), returned to buildings vacated by the
recently inactivated"U.S. Army Training Center, Fort Campbell,
Kentucky." Major General John Cushman was theCommanding
General, but he had a headquarters with no hindquarters.

The 101st was
almost exactly 1/3 airborne. That is, the Third Brigade (the former 173rdAirborne
Brigade, with the Geronimos of 1-503rd and 2-503rd Infantry, and the Rakkasans
of 3-187th Infantry) were on jump status. First Brigade (1-327th and 2-327th
Infantry and 2-502nd Infantry) and Second Brigade (1-501st Infantry, 1-502nd
Infantry, and 1-506th Infantry) were leg. One third of thedivision
support elements were airborne on status, the other two-thirds were straight
leg. So, forexample,
the 326th Engineer Battalion had one airborne company, but two leg companies.
Same for the 501st Signal Battalion, the 311th Military Intelligence Battalion,
and so on.

This
organization wasn't really as bizarre as it sounds. After all, during WWII the
101stwasn't
100% parachute. Then it was 1/3 parachute and 2/3 glider forces. Under the
theory of "the helicopter is the new glider," the airborne were to
provide a light, fast vertical envelopment/assault capability, while the
airmobile elements would follow up with sustained and heavierforces. At one
time the Division Museum (Pratt Museum) at Fort Campbell even had aspectacular
mural painted the length of one wall. It showed the 3rd Brigade parachuting in
andseizing
an airfield in the manner of the Rangers at Point Salinas, Grenada. Once the
airfield was secured, a fleet of C-130s and C-141s were depicted landing and
disgorging the 1st and 2ndBrigades, with UH-1 Huey and AH-1 Cobra helicopters. The
airmobile elements then fannedout, linked up, and defeated the enemy.
But it couldn't happen without recruiting a division'sworth of
soldiers, one third of them airborne.

There was
intense competition among units for every soldier who walked in the door atthe 21st
Replacement Detachment, particularly if they were airborne or had prior
service. Howdesperate
were they? Well, I reported to the 101st Airborne Division after breaking a
bone in myankle
on my second qualifying parachute jump at Fort Benning. While not fully
airbornequalified,
I was supposed to go on and report to my airborne unit, jump with them, and
mailmanifests
back to Fort Benning to receive my wings (a process I have always referred to
as"getting
my airborne wings by correspondence course"). Unknown to me, the commander
of theDivision
Pathfinder Platoon, CPT Patrick Dougherty, had been hounding the G1 for
airbornequalified
lieutenants to fill the pathfinder platoon.

As fate would
have it, on the day I walked in and reported to the G1, the G1 was on thephone
with CPT Dougherty yet again. "OK, OK, I'll find you one." He looked
up and saw mestanding
there with my orders in my hand, and said "Hey, Lieutenant, are you
airborne?" Istarted my explanation: "I just came from Airborne
School, but " the G1 turned back to thephone "OK, I've got you one,
his name is" (grabbed my orders) "2LT Bloodworth, Charles S."
After he hung up, I gave the G1 the full story of my not-quite-airborne status,
and he laughed. Hethought it was funny that he had assigned a leg to the
Pathfinders, and said "well, if CPTDougherty wants an airborne lieutenant
that bad, he can get you airborne qualified."

On April 25,
1972 the Pathfinders were scheduled to put on a simple helicopterdemonstration
jump for several busloads of high school students. My best friend from OCS,2LT
William "Bill" Groce, drove his Corvette out to Corregidor Drop Zone.
I drove out in myFiat, a tiny car that the others used to call "the
roller skate." The others assembled, each drivingtheir own
privately owned vehicles.

The school
busses arrived as we waited for the helicopter. We gave the students abriefing,
including "pull-off demonstration" in which a canopy was deployed on
the ground toshow
them how they worked. Then the UH-1 Huey showed up, bearing CPT Dougherty andSSG
Mifflin Tichenor, who had just been assigned to the platoon. SSG Tichenor
needed a jumpto
get his jump pay started, I still needed to jump to get my wings. They had
decided to ride inon the helicopter from the airfield to make sure it was
rigged correctly with the floor mounted"doughnut" anchor line cable.
It was about 10:00 in the morning. The winds had been gustingall morning.
We were supposed to be limited to a maximum of 13 knots to jump, but we had the
MC1-1 steerable canopies, so we had decided to let 15 knots be our decision
point. It didn'tmatter, the winds were now a steady 18 knots, over 20 mph.
The jump was scratched, much tothe disappointment of the students (and
SSG Tichenor and myself).

The pilots
then offered to "put on a little air show." They proceeded to do low
hovers,high
hovers, pedal turns, sideways and backwards flights, nothing particularly fancy
ordangerous.
That ended the demonstration. The pilots had two hours of fuel, and were just
goingto
"burn it off on the back 40" when the pilot radioed the DZSO:
"Hey, any of your guys want toget some stick time?" We couldn't
believe it. The pilot was willing to let the Pathfinders, noneof whom were
rated aviators, fly the helicopter. We had heard apocryphal stories of aviators
inViet
Nam who had taught their crew chiefs to fly in case the pilots were shot on an
LZ andunable
to take off. It was considered a form of life insurance. Based on the offer
from this pilot,apparently those stories were true.

2LT William
Groce was first to leap at the offer. He asked: "Who wants to drive my
'vetteback?"
[from the DZ]. CPT Dougherty, who loved Corvettes, agreed to drive it back. SSGTichenor
had left his car at the airfield, so he stayed with the helicopter. I asked,
"Who wants totake the roller skate back?" but got no offers. So we
watched as the pilot got out of the cockpitof the helicopter and climbed
into the back cargo compartment, while 2LT William Groce got inthe pilot's seat
and strapped in. They took off, in what appeared to be a regular takeoff. Wewatched
and waved as they turned west and climbed to a few hundred feet. I said to
myself "Thatlucky son of a bitch." Then the main rotor head snapped
off.

The helicopter
nosed over and free fell to the ground. The next sound was the highschool
students, some screaming, some crying. We got them on their busses and out of
there.Then
we raced to the crash site, there was no fire, but it was clearly not a
survivable accident.The pilot, CW2 Howard Blanton, Jr. was 22 years old. He was
lying on the ground next to thewreck, not a mark on his body, as if
asleep. 2LT William Groce, 26 years old, was still strappedinto the
pilot's seat, which had broken loose at impact, sending him face first into the
instrumentpanel.
His was a closed casket. The co-pilot was CW2 David Allen Green, also 22 years
old,killed
upon impact. SSG Mifflin Tichenor, 29-years-old, had been struck by some object
as theforward
part of the helicopter broke up, and then was thrown from the aircraft. He was
also lyingalongside
the wreckage, dead from severe head injuries prior to ground impact.

The accident
investigation team from Fort Rucker didn't have any difficulty in quicklydetermining
of the cause of the accident. Examination of the main rotor head and the mastshowed
that an event called "mast bumping" had occurred. Mast bumping
happens when themain rotor blade pivots like a teeter-totter under light
load or no-load conditions, as when a novice aviator over-controls the stick
(cyclic) and puts the helicopter into near zero g-forceconditions. In
a fraction of a second the mast is overloaded and it snaps. In this case the
bladepivoted
down and sliced through the left side of the cockpit after breaking off. The
blade wasrecovered
several hundred meters away. Embossed in the leading edge, in reverse type, was
theword
"BELL". This matched the raised lettering on the co-pilot's
anti-torque foot pedals of theHuey, destroyed when the blade sliced
through and struck them. But the co-pilot's feet wereintact. The
inevitable conclusion: the co-pilot didn't have his feet on the controls. 2LT
Groce,the
non-rated Pathfinder, had been in total control of the aircraft.

The accident
was an embarrassment for the Pathfinders and the 101st Aviation Group. Itwas
quickly covered up, and news of the accident was limited to a single article
the next day inthe Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle newspaper. [April 26, 1972,
page 1, below the fold]. There was aperfunctory memorial service in the
base chapel that may have lasted 20 minutes start to finish,and consisted
solely of reading the military biographies of the four deceased soldiers. For
yearsno
one spoke about the accident. We had to soldier on, in any event, trying to get
the Divisionfilled,
trained, and rated C-1 (operationally ready). Almost all of the officers
concerned weredischarged
within a few years when the Army entered a period of post-Viet Nam reductions
in force. There is no memorial, no history, not even in a Pathfinder or
Airborne web page haveIbeen able to find describing the accident and the men who
died. It is as if they never existed.Years later, when my third son was
born, I was again at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. I named mythird son
William, and when he was old enough I told him of 2LT William Groce, my buddyfrom
Infantry OCS and the 101st Airborne Division Pathfinder Platoon. I'd like to
get the wordout
to all Pathfinders, especially those of the 101st Airborne Division, so these
men are notforgotten.

As I said, a
massive push was underway to recruit soldiers to refill the division. The drafthad
ended, this was the time of VOLAR (Volunteer Army). Soldiers had to be
recruited, withslogans such as "Today's Army Wants You."
Recruiters were given recruiting incentives, such as"Unit of
Choice" (guaranteeing that the recruit would be assigned to a specific
unit); "Station ofChoice" (guaranteeing that the recruit would be
assigned to a specific location); "Airborne DutyOption"
(guaranteeing airborne training and a jump slot assignment); there were of
course MOSguarantees,
and so on. Every soldier in the Division was told he was to be an assistant
recruiter. The Pathfinders and the 3rd Brigade did parachute demonstrations in
front of county fairs, and athigh schools. We showed movies at malls, and did static
displays with parachutes, radios, AK-47s and other weapons in the court house
square of cities all around Fort Campbell.

Obviously one
of our biggest draws was to wear our Class A uniforms, with a garrisoncap with
glider patch, backgrounds on our wings, and trousers bloused into spit-shined
jumpboots.
And it worked. We recruited hundreds of young men, perhaps thousands, who came intothe Army
under a much- reduced threat of being sent into combat. There was enhanced pay
and GI Bill benefits, and the elimination of many of the irritants to service
life that were part of theArmy until that point: Saturday morning muster formations,
weekend passes, KP duty. Thesemen came into the 101st with a
guarantee of Unit or Station of Choice 101st Airborne/Fort Campbelland airborne
duty status. Jump pay for enlisted men was $55.00 per month, a considerable
bonusfor
a soldier with $300 - $400 per month in base pay. Hazardous duty pay alone
could provide arespectable car payment in 1972.

By 1973 the
mix of airborne and non-airborne soldiers, with the difference in pay andprestige,
was causing serious morale problems. Fights were not uncommon. Airborne
soldiersnot
assigned to a jump slot were occasionally jumping, either legally (with
permissive no-payorders) or illegally (sneaking onto aircraft with the
connivance of jumpmasters who might betheir roommate). In an effort to keep a
uniform appearance, even the leg soldiers were permittedto wear the
garrison cap with glider patch and bloused boots, but of course they had no
wings. That was heresy to the truly Airborne. Then matters reached critical
mass when the Department ofthe Army pulled the entire 101st Division off jump status.

That was an
even greater morale crisis, as jump pay was stopped, but car paymentscontinued.
Also, it appeared that the 101st would be forced to revert wearing low quarter
shoesand
the round service hat (derisively called the "bus driver hat" by
Airborne soldiers). The Armydoesn't use the expression "breach of contract."
The correct wording is "unfulfilled enlistments"and suddenly
the 101st was facing hundreds, if not thousands of them. Those recruited under
the Unit/Station of Choice and Airborne options couldn't have both. They had
three choices:

- Waive the
Unit/Station of Choice and transfer to another unit on jump status. In 1973this
meant the 1st Battalion (Airborne), 509th Infantry in Italy (that's pretty far
from Tennessee/Kentucky); or thearch-rival 82nd Airborne Division, or;

- Waive the
Airborne Duty Option and stay with the 101st at Fort Campbell, but possibly
wear the same uniform every other leg in the Army was wearing, or;

- Demand an
immediate Honorable Discharge, with VA benefits if they had been in 180days. This
last option looked pretty good to a lot of soldiers.

What was the
command to do? MG John Cushman was being transferred to beCommandant of
the Military Academy, and MG Sid Berry was his successor. In a stroke ofgenius,
a solution was found that saved the day and created a new badge. Years before,
the 101sthad
created and run what they called the Recondo School, a kind of mini-Ranger
course. Afterinstruction
of hand-to-hand combat, patrolling, field craft, and intensive physical
challenges thegraduates
had been awarded a "Recondo Badge." It was a local wear item, much
like the JungleExpert badge in Panama, or the "Pro-Life Pin" of
MG Hank "The Gunfighter" Emerson in Korea.You joined the
unit, you attended a short course, you earned it, you wore it while you were in
theunit,
and when you left you took it off. The 101st dusted off the Recondo School
program ofinstruction
and created the Airmobile Badge. That's right, it was originally called the
AirmobileBadge.
Locally designed and fabricated, the badge was deliberately crafted to mimic
the gliderwings
of WWII, which hadn't been issued since the 1950s. The nose of the Huey took
the placeof
the glider body, and the horizontal rotor blade was the spitting image of the
glider wing.

Soldiers could
attend a five-day yes, five-day training program and be awarded theAirmobile
Badge. "In the tradition of the glider troops," who, remember, were
2/3 of the WWII101st Airborne Division, they could bear the badge with the
cloth colored background as if theywere on jump status. They could wear
the garrison cap with glider patch and the coveted blousedboots. From
five meters away they were indistinguishable from a real paratrooper. Now
everybodyin
the division could look like an Airborne soldier.

Real Airborne
soldiers took an immediate dislike to the Airmobile Badge. Look closelyat one. Now
imagine coloring in the two front windows of the Huey with a black pen. Now
colorin
the two lower chin windows and the space between them. Finally, color in the
wings left andright
with two black circles. Yes, it bears a remarkable likeness to Mickey Mouse. We
calledthem
"mouse wings" and by the time I left the 101st in 1974 it was still
not possible to post apicture of the badge at Fort Campbell without some Airborne
trooper coming by with a black felttip marker and turning it into
"Mickey Mouse wings."

Well, it took
a little more tuning up. The badge had to be renamed something sexier, likethe
"Air Assault Badge," and the class was stretched to ten days, but to
be frank, it was agimmick. The Air Assault school didn't teach anything the
typical 101st soldier didn't alreadyknow or was taught at the unit level.
101st soldiers were sling loading, rappelling, climbing upand down
trooper ladders from the aft ends of hovering CH-47s and setting up PZs and LZs
incombat
in Viet Nam, years before the air assault badge was created. But it worked. We
avoidedthe
massive hemorrhage of soldiers. When the soldiers left the 101st Airborne
Division, thebadge
came off, its mission accomplished.

Then how did
the Air Assault Badge become a permanent wear item? As every Airborne soldier
knows, there is one and only one Program of Instruction at Airborne School.
Fromprivate
to general, everybody goes through the same training minute by minute, mile for
mile,pushup
for pushup. The same rules apply for Ranger, Special Forces, and Pathfinder. I
assume that also applies to SCUBA and HALO, but I haven't been there so I don't
know. But early in itshistory the Air Assault School, in a stroke of genius,
created an A Course, a B Course, and a C Course. The A Course is for the
average soldier. They must stand inspection formations, getdropped for
pushups, double-time everywhere, etc.

But then there
is the B Course, for field grade officers (majors and above) and seniorNCOs. They
were allowed to come to the school each morning an hour late, skipping theinspection
formation and the accompanying push-ups and chickenshit. They were gently led
tothe
front of every line, coached on tasks, allowed to enter and exit the classrooms
first, andgenerally
handled warmly. No harsh words, and no stress. Then there was the C Course, forgeneral
officers. The C Course lasted one week. They were spoon-fed the instruction,examinations
were one-on-one, and nobody watched the clock too closely on the timed runs.

The result of
the B and C Courses was predictable. In barely two years the Army had alarge number
of senior officers and NCOs who were not Airborne qualified, but who hadbreezed
through a special program of instruction and received the Air Assault Badge
while at FortCampbell.
They wore the badge, with the accoutrements of the Airborne. But since it was atemporary
wear local item, they had to remove it when they left Fort Campbell. It wasn't
longbefore
the Pentagon and the Military Personnel Center had a good number of field grade
officersand
senior NCOs who had received the Air Assault badge, but couldn't wear it or put
it in theirpersonnel
records. The result: the Air Assault Badge quickly became a permanent wear
item. AsPaul
Harvey would say: "And now you know the rest of the story."